An official website of the United States Government
Accessibility
Why we build accessible digital artifacts at FPAC.
Our challenge
The American people expect to interact with government through technology such as websites, mobile applications, kiosks, and other electronic channels. To ensure equal access to government policies and programs, government technology must be accessible to people with disabilities and conform to Section 508 standards. Today, too many of our digital services and technology solutions are not accessible to disabled members of the public or the disabled employees who support them.
What is accessibility?
Accessibility is one of the most important aspects of modern web development. Accessibility means the greatest number of users can view your content. It means search engines will be able to read your site more completely. Users of all types will have a better experience if you take accessibility concerns into account. And least of all, it is a required by law for all federal EIT products to be accessible (with a few minor exceptions).
Accessibility works best when incorporated into an Agile production environment. It’s very hard to adequately address accessibility concerns at the end of a project, but if taken into account at the beginning, it’s quite straightforward and cost-effective. The best and perhaps only way to ensure this is done, is through training and education. Every member of a production team should be aware of what accessibility concerns are and a have a basic understanding of how they’re addressed.
Here at FPAC, we follow both the GSA Accessibility Playbook and WCAG2.0 AA as our standard for why and how we facilitate accessible design. WCAG has long been the gold standard for accessibility on the web and part 1194.5 of the Section 508 standards allows FPAC to use a set of standards that meet current user needs. Further, the Access Board has also been working on a refresh to correct the Section 508 standards to incorporate WCAG2.0 AA. The GSA Accessibility Playbook is a critical step in that process.
This site is currently in Draft as it is still being built. It will eventually contain resources for all things accessibility, development best practices, testing guides, and tools. If you have any questions about accessibility, 508, or would like help, please reach out on the GitHub Repo.
Disclaimer: This resource is intended to help FPAC develop accessible products and is not a replacement for the standards defined by the Access Board. Please visit the Access Board for information on Section 508 and its compliance criteria.